So for those that dont know, the new Avatar series starts in April, but the home site http://www.korranation.com/ already has the first 2 episodes available to those that want to watch it. Happy to say that it's got the same feel as the original so far.

Keep in mind the episodes are only available for people in the US, and there's also two trailers on there. One that's one of those cheesy "PREVIOUS, AVATAR AANG SAVED THE WORLD" and such, and then the next is a preview for this season of Korra.

Having not watched a lot of previews, I'm surprised at just how advanced republic city is. Like, 1930s New York is it? Another way this series captures the spirit of the old one: Being very, very blatant with it's inspirations, but still mixing them up in an interesting way.

And the setting is more like 1920's steampunk-ish. Then again, the Fire Nation from the original series was very steampunk-ish, so I imagine that Republic City has adopted more of Fire Nation's setup than anything else.

Vegedus wrote:Having not watched a lot of previews, I'm surprised at just how advanced republic city is. Like, 1930s New York is it? Another way this series captures the spirit of the old one: Being very, very blatant with it's inspirations, but still mixing them up in an interesting way.

70 years is a long time.

Imagine the advances made in OUR world between the 1850s and the 1920s, during the Industrial Revolution.

In the first show, we already had ironclads, giant drills, tanks, and working zeppelins. With the ability to bend added to the mix, industrial and scientific advancements aren't so far-fetched, given how the end of the war and the work of Aang and Zuko promoted the (peaceful) intermingling of previously segregated cultures and nationalities. Couple all this with the Fire Nation's previously-established technological base, and you have a potent mix.

Word of God is that the show is set during the Avatar universe's equivalent of the Roaring Twenties...so no, Republic City's advanced look is not that surprising.

And everything in BobSaget's first post is absolutely true.

This show is gonna be A-MAY-ZAAAAAAA.

Quote of the Moment

Nix wrote:Forget constructive dialog, debate or differing points of view; from now on I think we should all just throw shoes whenever we disagree with somebody. That's what civilized, responsible people do. Eat shoe, political detractors!

It's just a uniform, they could claim to be anyone and you'd have to take their word for it or make up whatever you want. And there's no internet and photos to spread that around. They could just decide to disappear and nobody would ever know who they were. Heck Iroh is probably the only gut the soldiers/locals would recognize. Furthermore, considering the fact that this is pretty much ancient China, it's not unlikely that the people don't recognize them from their looks.Is it really that hard to believe that a bunch of military masterminds come together to overthrow a government that they disagree with? The fact that they came from different backgrounds doesn't seem all that relevant. However unlikely it is... Still possible.Which is my point.

Okay so everyone in Ba Sing Se is going to know that a bunch of bending masters and other military masterminds banded together to help overthrow the Fire Nation. But because they don't want anyone to know that they're OWL they just say they're the Order of Black Trees and get everybody in Ba Sing Se to agree to never mention the OBT.

How ridiculous is that.

It doesn't matter what they're called, it's functionally the same if everyone knows that there is a secret society of elite benders and soldiers. At that point, they might as well come out with it.

BobSagat wrote:It doesn't matter what they're called, it's functionally the same if everyone knows that there is a secret society of elite benders and soldiers. At that point, they might as well come out with it.

Or they could just... Disappear? Being an urban legend is almost as good as being completely secret. And I'm just going to stress the lack of communication once again. If a bunch of (non-secret-society) experienced warriors coming together just to overthrow the government is as unbelievable as you said, if they retreated as quickly as they attacked, it shouldn't be too much trouble to cover their tracks. Sure people would talk about it, but it would eventually die down, with the lack of proof and all.

Vegedus wrote:Does this matter? The writers decided they wanted them to no longer be a secret organization. It's seems to me to be a moot point whether they could have remained secret.

This isn't like forgetting who it was that picked up your phone for you. This is D-Day level of big. A huge battle occurred in the retaking in the most sought-after prize in the hundred-year-war. Not only the resident citizens, but all the Fire Nation soldiers there will be able to attest that they were attacked by master-level firebenders, waterbenders and earthbenders. No way is anyone gonna mistake that for just some ordinary resistance group. It would take serious planning involved to be able to organize those people from all over the world. With such an important battle and with such a powerful group, the history books wouldn't be forgetting the retaking of Ba Sing Se anytime soon.